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Announcing the 12th ISFF Award Winners
Each year, we call upon leaders in science, art, and film to come together from their very different perspectives to select the best films of the year in three categories.
Festival Awards
  • Chroma Scientific Merit Award
    The Scientific Merit Award, presented by Chroma, is given by the jury to the film that exemplifies science in storytelling and narrative filmmaking in a compelling, credible and inspiring manner.

    WINNER: Carlotta's Face by Valentin Riedl & Frédéric Schuld
    Runner-Up: Scenes from a Dry City by Simon Wood & Francois Verster
  • Scientist Award
    The Scientist Award is given by the jury to a film that portrays in an accurate and inventive way the life of a scientist. The goal of this award is to encourage more scientists to create films that let us into their minds, labs, and lifestyle.

    WINNER: The Sasha by Maria Molina Peiró
    Runner-Up: Raymond Tallis - On Tickling by Johan Grimonprez
  • Visual Science Award
    The Visual Science Award is given by the jury to the film that best depicts science in a visually-engaging manner.

    WINNER: Volcano: What Does a Lake Dream? by Diana Vidrascu
    Runner-Up: Carlotta's Face by Valentin Riedl & Frédéric Schuld
The ISFF 2019 Jury
  • Amélie Garin-Davet
    Film Program Officer
    Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the US
    Born in Paris and based in New York, Amélie Garin-Davet is the Film Program Officer for the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States. She curates and coordinates French and francophone film events with arthouse theaters, cinematheques and universities.

    She's worked with several US festivals, film sales, curated film programs, and handled publicity and events production for various distributors and film organizations (including Hamptons International Film Festival, Carlotta Film US, MK2). Last year, she co-curated a festival in Belle-Ile, an island off the coast of Brittany (France) dedicated to the work of French filmmaker and scientist Jean Painlevé. She is also a Program Advisor at UnionDocs where she has presented screenings and events. She studied Arts, Anthropology and Bambara language from Mali.

  • Peter Galison
    Pellegrino University Professor of the History of Science and Physics
    Harvard University
    Peter Galison is the Pellegrino University Professor of the History of Science and of Physics at Harvard University. In 1997 Galison was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship; won a 1998 Pfizer Award (for Image and Logic) in the History of Science; in 1999 received the Max Planck and Humboldt Stiftung Prize, and in 2018, the Abraham Pais Award in the History of Physics. His other books include How Experiments End (1987); Einstein's Clocks, Poincaré's Maps (2003); and Objectivity (with Lorraine Daston, 2007). Among his films are "Ultimate Weapon: The H-bomb Dilemma" (with Pamela Hogan); with Robb Moss, he directed and produced "Secrecy" which premiered at Sundance (2008), and "Containment" (2015), about the need to guard radioactive materials for the 10,000-year future. Galison has collaborated with South African artist William Kentridge on a multi-screen installation, "The Refusal of Time" (2012) and associated chamber opera, "Refuse the Hour." He is now making a feature-length documentary about the history and philosophy of black holes.


  • Sharon Shattuck
    Filmmaker/Television Producer
    Sharon Shattuck is an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker, television producer, and podcast creator. She's the co-creator of the New York Times Op Docs series, 'ANIMATED LIFE,' which tells stories of scientific discovery using stringent journalism and paper puppets. The series was nominated for a 2016 Creative Arts Emmy. Her first feature film, FROM THIS DAY FORWARD, a memoir of growing up with a transgender parent, broadcast nationally on POV (PBS) in 2016, and was distributed on Netflix, SundanceNow, and iTunes. Her work has appeared on PBS, National Geographic Channel, Netflix, Slate, Vice, The New York Times, The Atlantic, ProPublica, and Radiolab. She has degrees in forest ecology and journalism. She is currently codirecting a film about bias and women scientists, and cohosting a new podcast with Gimlet Media, both out in 2020.
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